TechnoRanma
by Nicolai Tiger
Summary: Ranma discovers something in his mind that will have a severe effect on his outlook. Story starts right after Jusenkyo


Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Ranma 1/2 Characters. Any unique character I introduce I do claim.  
  
Ranma sighed again and set down before the fire. It was only a day ago that his father had done something unforgivable. He looked down at his body slowly, afraid that at any time he could change again. Hot water had returned him to his normal body, he had discovered that when trying to remove some stubborn dirt.  
  
He looked back at the small fire some distance off. He knew his father was there, probably with the guide. Ranma had fled when he had discovered that he was female, fearing that his father would order him to uphold the contract that he carried in his pack. Ranma had found the contract along with some scrolls one evening while looking for any food his father might have hidden.  
  
Two hours after sunset, Ranma once again went into his meditations. There was a mystery in his head, and he just had to figure it out. Everything he had tried had failed, and Ranma refused to believe that he couldn't win, even at this. Slowly, awareness of the outside world faded, his senses turned inward.  
  
He stood before the shimmering sphere, once again amazed that this could exist in his mind. He could feel it now, even when he was not trying to. Two years of meditation had made him acutely aware of the sphere. Sighing, he once again studied the sphere.  
  
"Attacking it fails, energy fails, everything fails. Nothing can affect it!" Ranma spoke aloud in his own mind. He approached the sphere and threw a punch once again, watching the sphere flex just a little to aviod the blow. He had spent days attacking it, watching the movements, looking for some weakness he could exploit. There was none.  
  
Ranma spun and sat down, then leaned back, trying to regain his thoughts. It was not easy to be here, it drained him and left him vulnerable to attack in the real world, but this puzzle needed to be solved.  
  
"Wait, what am I leaning against?" Ranma asked. His head turned and he realised that he was touching the sphere, something that he had never been able to do before. "Of course, I am not attacking now!" Ranma stood and faced the sphere once again. Reaching out a hand slowly, he touched the surface. It was slightly warm, dry, and had the texture of fine silk.  
  
"Ok, what now?" Ranma puzzled over it, then placed an ear to the sphere. He lifted his hand and knocked on the sphere three times. To his suprise, the sphere did not retract, but instead seemed to shimmer a bit. When Ranma stepped back, he noticed a door where there had been unbroken surface before.  
  
Once again, Ranma knocked on the door. To his suprise, it opened. Ranma stood only for a second before entering. He felt a tingle as he passed, then blackness settled over him. He stopped, then took another step forward. To his suprise, the blackness faded and he saw what looked like a small study, books piled everywhere. A long table sat in the middle of the room, thirteen chairs around it. He stepped into the shadows when he heard someone approaching. He watched a man step up, then the image split, again and again, untill there were thirteen beings there. Each moved to a seat and placed the books they were carrying on the table.  
  
"So, do you think he can work his way in?" Asked a small woman. She looked to be about ten years old, yet was fully formed.  
  
"I have no idea. The fact that he is even aware of the globe is, in itself, a major achievement. I know I will welcome one of his strength into our ranks." The man that sat at the head of the table had a clear, deep voice. He looked the oldest of them all, long robes flowing over a thin frame.  
  
"True, but this fact alone could make things tough. What if he resists?" A large man said. He looked to be more muscled than anyone Ranma had ever seen. He could tell that the strength there was far beyond his own. "I, for one, do not want to die."  
  
"None of us do, but if he can indeed find the globe and understand it, he should be willing to listen to us, at least, and in that we have the best chance of all." Another female had spoken, this one with bluish skin, well formed, and wearing what looked like a lab coat.  
  
"But you know as well as the rest of us, if he resists, we are now so weak from our sealing that we cannot fight back. We will indeed die." The voice was feminine, but it came from something that looked like a spider. It was using the first set of limbs as arms, it's torso longer than expected, while the other six were folded alonside in a seated position.  
  
"Enough conjecture. We can only wait and see when the time comes. In two years the field will fall and we will then be able to contact him. We planned well and his mother will have instilled enough of honor and value into the boy that he will indeed listen to us. I can only hope he decides in favor of us." The man at the head of the table turned and began to walk away when he stopped suddenly, his head turning to the stack of books Ranma was hiding behind.  
  
Ranma stood, bringing a gasp from those still sitting. The man turned and took his seat at the table again. Gesturing to Ranma, he gestured to a chair at the other end of the table, one that Ranma was sure hadn't been there before.  
  
Ranma sat and stared at the man opposite him. He saw wisdom in those eyes, along with some hope. He spoke again, his voice clear and without emotion. "You heard it all, correct?" Ranma nodded and the man continued. "Then you are indeed stronger than we could have ever hoped for. Will you listen to our tale?" Ranma nodded once again.  
  
"Then know that we are all one, a being that has existed for thousands of years, scientist, warrior, diplomat, we have been everything." The man gestured to the figures around the table. "Each of these experienced life untill they achieved maturity, then were given a choice, join with us or fight us for control. As you have heard, we cannot fight you for control. We never could, not for any of these that sit here."  
  
The man rose and walked over to a stack of books. He placed his hand on it, looking down. He then turned his head sideways and looked at Ranma again. "The choice was supposed to be a test, one that showed that the body we would share was not one prone to violence. It let us know that our knowledge would not be used for evil." He lowered his head again.  
  
Suddenly, he straightened and turned to face Ranma. "Your presence here is a problem though. However you got in, you are now locked in with us."  
  
Ranma stood and ran to the point he had entered only to encounter a solid wall. He knocked on it to no avail. Sighing deeply, he turned and looked at the man walking up to him.  
  
"The problem is, while your body is working on automatic, your spirit will remain here, and no, I cannot let just you out." The man gestured for Ramna to follow him. At the table once again, the man sat and waited for Ranma to sit. "Here are your choices. You can refuse us, and we sit here for two of your years. When that happens, the field will fall and we will battle. When you win, we will die and you will be free."  
  
Ranma glanced at the faces around him. He could not read any emotion on any of them, and it made him nervous. "What is my other choice?"  
  
"You can accept us, and I will lower the field, allowing all of us to return to the realm of the living." The man chuckled slightly before allowing a grin to slip onto his face. "Defeating me now will achieve nothing, for the field will exist without us, and it takes an act of will on my part to lower it early. If I only have two years left, I want them. I like living."  
  
Ranma sighed and looked at the table. It was a wood table, the grain standing out in sharp relief against the light colored wood. "Can I ask some questions before I decide?" When the man nodded yes, Ranma smiled. "First, do I haveta give up the art?"  
  
"No, and you will gain access to skills that you could never dream of. We have been warriors and guardians before, and we will be again."  
  
Ranma nodded once. "Two, will I forget who I am in favor of all of you?"  
  
"No. AS you can see, all of those who have become us retain their forms and memories. This is why we wait for the age of maturity before making you decide. Your life will add to ours and make us more than we are now."  
  
Ranma nodded again. "Three, why me?"  
  
"Ah, therin lies a tale. Your mother wanted a child more than life itself. She married Genma and tried to get pregnant. When she failed to, she sought out help, trying to find the reason." Ranma looked puzzled at the smile on the man's face. "Genma is sterile. He cannot father children."  
  
Ranma's face had a look of shock. "My... My mother had an affair?"  
  
"No, your mother is one of the most loyal and honorable women I have ever known. We came to her with our offer. We would give her a child if she was willing to carry our new life. She agreed and we used her DNA to construct you. We then implanted the new egg and things proceeded from there." The man sighed deeply. "You are indeed your mother's son, for there is nothing of your father in you. We could not obtain a sample from him, and he refused to believe that he could not father children."  
  
Ranma shook his head, his eyes squinted shut. "No, I can't belive it. Pops, he..." Ranma's eyes lit up. "That explains it then, why I am so different from him. Why he can steal and I can't."  
  
"Correct. Now, I must force this issue, for I feel that there is trouble approaching your mortal form. Will you accept us?"  
  
Ranma looked at the faces around him once again. He could see emotion now, each and every eye conveying the same emotion. Hope. "If you swear to me that I can uphold the code of the art, that I will always protect the weak, then I agree."  
  
"So be it. We agree with you that we shall protect the weak." The man stood and the twelve figures began to blend into his form once again. "Take my hand and let us return before anything bad happens."  
  
Ranma reached out and touched the hand before him. There was a gutwrenching twisting, a flash of light, and the study faded from view. Ranma's eyes snapped open to see a large shadow over him. Without thinking, Ranma grabbed the figure and threw it up and over him. The figure landed with a thud and a very familiar cry of pain washed over his ears.  
  
"Dammit Pops, what didja think you were doin?" Ranma reached out with his hands and a keyboard popped up under them. He started typing rapidly, then watched the beam pass over his father. Turning back to the display, he saw there was no real damage to him. "I coulda really hurt ya!"  
  
To his credit, Genma did not run when he was bathed in that strange light, nor did he run when he saw his son typing on something that didn't look like it was really there. He scoffed when his son said he could have been hurt, but was still wary of whatever his son was doing.  
  
Ranma finished the diagnostics on the computer and started the powerup sequences of his lab. It would take a week for the system to restart and store enough power to activate the dimensional gates, but once the lab was operational again, he intended to find a cure for the curse. Finally done, he let the computer fade and turned to his father. "Let's get some sleep, Pops. We need to get home." 


End file.
